In 2007 and 2008, when former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was pretending to be an environmentalist, — and suckering some of the status quo media — I examined his long anti-environmental, anti-clean-energy history (see “Anti-environment, anti-technology Gingrich tries to rewrite history. Don’t buy it or his new book” and “Note to media: Newt Gingrich is an eco-fraud”). Gingrich continues to move (back) toward his ant-science roots made clear in this Think Progress’s repost. [Note: I don’t believe that Weekly World News headline is accurate, but it is no less plausible than Gingrich’s current views on CO2.Newt Gingrich wrote a column in the Washington Examiner yesterday addressing climate policy. In the op-ed, the former House Speaker attacks the Environmental Protection Agency’s move to classify CO2 emissions as a dangerous pollutant:
The Obama administration has been explicit about how its decision to have the Environmental Protection Agency regulate carbon dioxide as a dangerous pollutant was meant as a threat to Congress.
Gingrich, who is currently heading a coal-industry front group that has been working fervently to oppose climate change reform, has demonstrated an inconsistent stance on carbon emissions. In a 2007 climate change debate with Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), Gingrich stated that there is a need to reduce carbon “urgently”:
KERRY: What would you say to Senator Inhofe and to others in the Senate who are resisting even the science. What’s your message to them here today?
GINGRICH: My message I think is that the evidence is sufficient that we should move towards the most effective possible steps to reduce carbon loading in the atmosphere.
KERRY: And do it urgently — now?
GINGRICH: And do it urgently, yes.
Watch it:
In 2008, Gingrich called for action on climate change in an ad campaign for the Alliance for Climate Protection. Gingrich’s American Solutions for Winning the Future is airing television ads opposing climate reforms that the former Speaker once supported.
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